Essential Questions on Suicide Bereavement and Postvention

During the past decades public and research interest in postvention, i.e., support
for families and communities after a suicide, has increased. However, the postvention field
is still facing a number of important challenges and questions. This article aims to discuss a
series of essential issues on suicide bereavement and postvention, regarding the current
state of the art and future developments. Who is a suicide survivor and how many suicide
survivors are there? Is suicide bereavement different from other types of bereavement?
What are the needs of suicide survivors and what is postvention from a clinical perspective
and from a public health perspective? Can postvention be prevention? With this last
question, the article concludes with a series of recommendations in order to strengthen the
potential of postvention as prevention.